What Is Discernment? A Catholic Guide

The English word comes from the Latin discernere, to separate or to tell apart. The idea is older than the word. The first letter of John warns believers not to accept every spiritual claim at face value: "Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." ¹ To try the spirits is to test them, and the habit of testing is the root of everything that follows.

Saint Paul says the same thing twice. To the Thessalonians he writes, in Pope Francis’ rendering, "Test everything; hold fast to what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21), which Francis places at the head of his own teaching on discernment. ⁴ To the Romans he connects testing with a changed mind: "be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God." ² In older English "prove" means to test, so Paul is describing discernment: a renewed mind that can recognize what God wants.

The most influential Catholic teaching on discernment comes from Saint Ignatius of Loyola, whose Spiritual Exercises close with two sets of rules for discerning spirits (nos. 313 to 336 in the standard numbering). Ignatius uses "spirits" for the inner movements a person feels (attractions, resistances, moods, thoughts) and asks where they come from and where they lead. The quotations below are from the 1914 translation by Elder Mullan, SJ. ³

The first set, meant for people early in the Exercises, turns on two words. Consolation is any interior movement that inflames the soul with love of God; Ignatius counts as consolation "every increase of hope, faith and charity," along with the inner joy that draws a person toward heavenly things and gives peace. Desolation is the opposite: darkness and disturbance of soul, a pull toward low and earthly things, restlessness, and a feeling of being lazy, lukewarm, sad and "as if separated from his Creator and Lord." ³

From these definitions come some of the most practical rules in Catholic spirituality. In desolation, "never to make a change," but hold to the resolutions made before it came. Do not simply wait it out, either: pray more, examine yourself more, and remember that grace enough remains even when it cannot be felt. When consoled, prepare humbly for the desolation that will follow. And bring temptations into the open. Ignatius compares the enemy to a seducer who wants his words kept secret, and who loses his hold once they are revealed "to his good Confessor or to another spiritual person." ³

The second set of rules is subtler and is meant for people further along. Ignatius warns that the evil spirit can take on the appearance of an angel of light, beginning with good and holy thoughts and leading little by little somewhere worse. The test is to watch the whole course of a train of thought: if the beginning, middle and end are all good, it is from the good spirit; if it ends in something less good, or leaves the soul disturbed and without peace, it is not. For someone growing toward God, he says, the good spirit touches the soul gently, like a drop of water entering a sponge, and the bad spirit sharply, like water striking a stone. ³ Ignatius himself advised that these second rules not be explained to beginners who are being tempted grossly and openly, because they could do more harm than good. ³

Pope Francis, a Jesuit, returned to discernment often. In Gaudete et Exsultate (2018), paragraphs 166 to 175, he describes it as a gift to be begged for and then developed. It is needed constantly, he writes, not only in moments of crisis, and is often exercised in small and apparently irrelevant things; for that reason he asks every Christian to make a sincere daily examination of conscience. ⁴ Discernment draws on reason and prudence and does not exclude what psychology and the other human sciences can see, but it reaches beyond them toward God’s particular plan for each person. It also requires real listening: to the Lord, to others, to reality itself, and with obedience to the Gospel and to the Magisterium that guards it. ⁴

Francis gave a series of general audience catecheses on discernment between August 31, 2022 and January 4, 2023. In the first he made two points that are easy to forget. Every person has to make their own decisions: adults may freely ask for advice, but "the decision is our own." And a right decision, even after a period of uncertainty, brings joy in the end. He added that God never imposes his will, because he wants children who love him freely, not slaves. ⁵ In the last talk he turned to spiritual accompaniment, calling discernment an art that can be learned and has its own rules, and above all a gift from God. ⁶

Discernment works alongside conscience and does not replace it. The Catechism, in paragraphs 1776 to 1802, describes conscience as a judgment of reason by which a person recognizes whether a concrete act is good or evil, and says that a person is obliged to follow faithfully what they know to be just and right. ⁷ Conscience has to be formed, and the Catechism names the means: the Word of God taken in through faith and prayer, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the witness or advice of others, and the authoritative teaching of the Church. ⁷

When a situation is genuinely unclear, the Catechism says a person must still seriously seek what is right and good, interpreting experience and the signs of the times with the help of prudence, the advice of competent people and the Holy Spirit. It also sets rules that apply in every case, the first being that one may never do evil so that good may come of it. ⁷ This marks the limits of discernment. A Catholic does not discern whether to commit a sin. Discernment operates among options that are good, or at least morally permissible, and asks which of them God is inviting this person toward. Ignatius said the same: anything about which a choice is made must be good or indifferent in itself and allowed within the Church. ³

For many people the word discernment means one question: what am I called to do with my life? The Church teaches first a universal vocation, the call of every baptized person to holiness. Within it come particular states of life. An article published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops names these as priesthood, religious or consecrated life, marriage and the single life, and says they must be discerned through prayer, study, spiritual accompaniment, discovering one’s gifts and a willingness to share them. ⁸

Each path has its own ordinary helps. A man considering the priesthood talks with his diocese’s vocation director, and the USCCB’s vocations office points both men and women to vocation directors, discernment retreats and religious communities. ⁹ A woman or man drawn to religious life usually visits communities, often several, and the community has its own discernment with them. Marriage is discerned as well, in a real relationship, with the help of family, friends, a priest and the Church’s marriage preparation. People who remain single, by choice or circumstance, discern how to give their lives in that state.

One principle from Ignatius is worth knowing here. The person who gives the Spiritual Exercises, he says, should not push the retreatant toward one state of life or another, but stand "in the centre like a balance" and leave the Creator to deal directly with the person. ³ The same restraint marks a good director or vocation director today.

None of this is a technique that produces answers on demand, but there are habits the Church has found reliable.

1. Pray, and ask for the gift. Discernment begins by asking the Holy Spirit for light; a prayer such as Come, Holy Spirit is a natural place to start.
2. Make a daily examen. Ignatius’ general examen has five points: thank God for the day’s gifts, ask for light, review the day hour by hour, ask pardon, and resolve to amend. ³ Over weeks, it shows you the pattern of your consolations and desolations. Our examination of conscience is a fuller version for confession.
3. Read Scripture slowly. The Word of God is the first means the Catechism names for forming conscience, and lectio divina is the Church’s old way of letting it speak.
4. Seek counsel. Talk with a priest, a director, a spouse or a trusted friend. Say aloud what you are weighing, including the parts that embarrass you.
5. Be patient, and do not decide in desolation. If you are dark and restless, keep to what you decided when you were at peace, and wait.
6. Offer the decision. Once you have chosen, give it to God and watch for peace or disturbance afterward. The Suscipe, Ignatius’ prayer of self-offering, fits this moment.

Many real decisions are not between good and evil but between two good things: two jobs, two cities, marriage or religious life. Ignatius wrote about this kind of choice, which he called an election, and named three "times" in which a sound one can be made (Exercises nos. 175 to 177). In the first, God moves the will so clearly that the person cannot doubt, as with Saint Paul or Saint Matthew following Christ. In the second, enough light comes through experience of consolations and desolations and the discernment of spirits. The third is a time of quiet, when the soul is not being pulled about by various spirits and can use its natural powers freely and calmly. ³

For that third time Ignatius gives two methods (nos. 178 to 188). The first is reasoned: keep in mind the purpose for which you were made, try to be free of any disordered preference, ask God to move your will, then list the advantages and disadvantages of each option, see where reason inclines, and offer the choice to God for confirmation. The second uses imagination. Picture a person you have never met, whom you want to be wholly good, and ask what you would advise them; then follow your own advice. Imagine yourself at the point of death, and on the Day of Judgment, and ask which choice you would then wish you had made. ³

The point of these exercises is to loosen the grip of fear, vanity and the wish to please others, so that a person can see the options as they are.

Ignatius assumed that discernment is done with another person. His Exercises are written for the one who gives them, not the one who makes them, and he says it is very helpful for the giver to be told faithfully about the various movements and thoughts the different spirits stir up, so that the exercises can be adjusted to the person. ³ His rule about temptations wanting to stay secret makes the same point from another angle: what is spoken aloud to a wise person loses much of its power to deceive. ³

Pope Francis said that looking at oneself in a mirror alone does not always help, because one can adjust the image, while looking with the help of another who tells the truth helps a great deal. The person who accompanies you, he added, does not decide for you but walks with you. ⁶ That is the role of a spiritual director. A first place to look is your parish or diocese; GraceBook also lists Catholic mentors who offer spiritual guidance by video, through find a mentor.